7 Vital Things to Look for in a 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training

How To Choose a High-Quality 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training

People often ask if they should do a 200-hour yoga teacher training even if they don’t plan to become a yoga teacher. I always answer with a resounding, ‘Yes!’ A foundational yoga teacher training is a wonderful opportunity to experience the vastness of yoga that is difficult to experience in a 60 or 90-minute class. But it’s important that you choose a high quality program.

Whether you want to become a yoga teacher or have no plans to teach, there are fundamental, universal yoga truths that need to be taught in order to create a solid foundation.

The following are seven vital things to look for in a 200-hour yoga teacher training. (And, by the way, Jason and I will be offering a 200-hour yoga teacher training starting this September, 2018, in San Francisco. You can find all the details here.)

200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training: 7 Things to Look For

1). Safe, Up-to-Date Asana Practice

Yoga is a wonderful, beneficial practice when done safely. And yet, it’s no secret that yoga injuries have been on the rise in recent years. (I even spoke about my own experiences with injury on a Yogaland podcast with Andrea recently.)

As a result, Jason and I have both made changes to the way we sequence vinyasa yoga classes (read: we’ve changed things up to reduce repetitive stress) and we don’t teach asana alignment in a “traditional way” just because it’s traditional. We both believe that there are instances where traditional asana alignment should be re-examined to help facilitate a safer practice.

Finally, we don’t subscribe to the idea that “deeper is better.” For students like myself who come to yoga with a flexible body, going deeper into flexibility doesn’t create balance. Focusing on strength does.

Bottom line: A topnotch 200-hour yoga teacher training will teach safe alignment, balanced sequencing that reduces repetitive stress, and perhaps most importantly, the idea that yoga postures are not one-size-fits-all.

As an added bonus, a good yoga teacher training will guide you toward a personal practice so that you can learn more about your own body and teach from a place of deep knowledge.

2). Essential Yoga Anatomy

A sound 200-hour yoga teacher training will help you become an active participant in your asana practice. You’ll increase the richness of the practice when you understand why you come into particular asana shapes and how the positions and actions affect your anatomy.

You’ll also learn the functions of your muscular and skeletal structure, both in your everyday life and in your yoga practice. And you’ll learn which muscles and bones are at risk in particular postures and how to protect those areas.

3). Philosophy and History

In an everyday yoga class, it can be hard to grasp the philosophical underpinnings of the practice. Look for a foundational yoga teacher training that covers the foundational texts: The Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and more. (You can find the reading list for our 200-hour yoga teacher training here.)

Ideally, you’ll gain insight as to where the practice originated from, and why we continue to do asana, meditation, and the other eight limbs of yoga. These teachings can bring purpose and meaning to your practice, your teaching, and your life.

4). Skillful, Intelligent Hands-On Adjustments

As with safe alignment, thoughtful teachers have re-examined how to offer safe manual adjustments to students. Jason and I do not do deepening adjustments. Instead, we offer stabilizing adjustments. In a high quality 200-hour yoga teacher training, the days of laying our bodies over our students to get them to go deeper should be long gone.

5). The Importance of Community

One of my favorite things about teacher trainings is the community that develops. A special bond forms when you learn and spend so much time with others. One of my best friends is from my first 200-hour teacher training! Its nice to having fellow teacher friends to rise up with when building a yoga career. Growing with others and getting supporting from one another makes the journey much more enjoyable!

6). Confidence

Many of us are unsure if we are “doing it right” when we come to our yoga practice. A high-quality yoga teacher training will help you build confidence in your own practice and give you tools to share your yoga knowledge and help others.

7). Life Coping Skills

We live in stressful times and many of use don’t know how to deal with the pressures and demands being put on us by society and our personal life. A good yoga teacher training will give you the tools to observe your patterns and tendencies, and why you suffer and react the way you do. The training will give you the life skills to show up and handle the same situations in a healthier, less stress inducing way.

Andrea Ferretti and Jason Crandell are a husband and wife team who have been teaching, writing about, and living their yoga for nearly two decades. Andrea is creative director for Jason Crandell Yoga Method. Jason is an internationally recognized vinyasa yoga teacher. They live together in San Francisco with their full-time boss, Sofia-Rose Crandell, age 5. To find out where you can train with Jason live, check out the Schedule page.